The 1983 movie A Christmas Story has always been different
from other holiday-TV staples like It’s a Wonderful Life
or The WaltonsChristmas special, because it is, indeed,
all about the toy. Based on humorist Jean Shepherd’s novel
In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, it’s a story
of boy wants gun (an official Red Ryder 200-shot Carbine
Action Range Model Air Rifle with a compass and a thing that
tells the time built right into the stock), boy pursues gun,
boy gets gun. In between, we get what might be the most unvarnished
look at American kid culture since Mark Twain.

It took a lot of jingle bells for author Phil Grecian to turn
a cult classic into a play suitable for small community theaters
like the Colonial Little Theatre, which is giving the work
its regional debut. But CLT has managed to squeeze Ralphie’s
entire two-story house, with all its doors and stairways,
the backyard and the alley—not to mention the schoolyard,
Christmas-tree lot and Goldblatt’s Department Store—onto its
teeny-tiny stage, along with a generous helping of the original
film’s charm.

Grecian’s version remains fairly true to the original, incorporating
much of the dialogue and as many of the best scenes—the Major
Award, the tongue on the frozen flagpole—as possible. Some
of the throwaway business which makes the film seem so eerily
real may be spelled out with a less subtle touch, and there’s
a bit during the gun scene (warning kids not to try this at
home) that sounds like it was added for liability, not dramatic,
reasons, but for the most part the story and the rhythm it’s
presented in are the same.

CLT’s production captures the film’s look of 1940s Middle
America grittiness—sort of as if Edward Hopper were drawing
the funnies—quite effectively through the use of props, color
and costumes. Casting a show whose characters have become
so familiar through repetition must have been daunting, but
director Harry Lummis seems to have lucked out, especially
with the crew of kids who are the show’s core. As 9-year-old
Ralphie, Jeff D. Wood, if a tad nervous and rushed, held his
own despite appearing in virtually every scene. (It was jolting
to hear his dad, Jeff S. Wood, doing grown-up Ralph’s narration
in tones far less dulcet than Shepard’s radio-smooth voice—but
the shock didn’t last long.)

Ralphie’s Old Man, Shane Thompson, played the role Darren
McGavin created with a pop-eyed belligerence that worked well.
Lisa Vosburgh’s Mother seemed less sheepish and more edgy
than Melinda Dillon’s movie mom, a change I thought made the
character more believable.

Many of the funniest, sharpest moments in the show came from
the minor players. Schuyler Engel as kid brother Randy (barely
more than a snowsuit-bound sight gag in the original) stole
the show with hardly a line of dialogue. Watching him eat
his oatmeal while the rest of the scene played around him,
it was clear he’s a natural-born comedian. But all the young
actors were fun to watch. Several of them, including Siobhan
K. Cornell, Jake Goldsmith and Jourdan Lummis, are already
seasoned pros, and the experience showed. Among the adults,
Lisa Weiderman as the children’s teacher, Miss Shields, and
Dave Biltucci as Ralphie’s cowboy hero, Red Ryder (a character
apparently invented for the stage version), each made their
brief roles stand out.

The performance I attended featured the best intermission
of all time: a buffet laid out with meatballs and red cabbage,
turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, and Ovaltine and cookies (menu
taken straight from the show), as well as a raffle and chance
to get your picture taken with Santa. And the provisions came
in handy; with an 8 PM curtain (8:30 on opening night, which
coincided with the city’s annual Colonial Stroll) and a 25-minute
intermission, the show ran close to three hours. That’s well
past bedtime for what is otherwise a kid-friendly production,
even one that celebrates the naughty and the nice like A
Christmas Story.